Painted by Mirza Ali
Around 1540 in Tabriz
This is an excellent example of portraiture in the Persian painting tradition
This young princess leans gracefully foward as she holds a flower up to admire its scent. The folds of her clothes fall around her. The orange and blue tones harmonize beautifully in this miniature. I especially like the frame in pale blue with lines of poetry interspersed.
She is the paragon of female beauty in Persian paintings of this period. In fact, both men and women are depicted in this delicate, flowing manner.Portraits, unlike most miniatures, were often produced as single, stand-alone illustrations for rich patrons. Some painters specialized in portraits, with the later Safavid painter Reza Abbasi being particularly well-known for his refined portraits of notables and ordinary Persians.